Progress report on PALE

Abstract

Paleoclimates of Arctic Lakes and Estuaries (PALE) is one of two paleoenvironmental research programs in the overall structure of Arctic System Science (ARCSS), a global change program centered in the Division of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation. The objectives of PALE are to describe circumarctic patterns of paleoclimatic variations for three time periods (150,000 BP‐present, 20,000 BP‐present, and 2000 BP‐present), based on proxy indicators preserved in circumpolar lake and estuarine sediments; and to identify regional and global processes controlling the observed paleoclimatic changes. A discussion of PALE was published in Eos (July 1991), and NSF issued a call for proposals that same month, with six new proposals now funded. Several of these studies will investigate new ways of determining climatic signals in arctic lake sediments or developing methods for improving chronologies.